Curated by Chance

Episode 76: A Pod Full of Tangents This week’s prompts: Peach, Necktie, 309 Neal and Lauren lean fully into chaos this week with an episode that earns its title the old-fashioned way: by going absolutely everywhere. What starts as a quick check-in spirals into a joyful, free-range conversation about internet conspiracies, parasocial fandom, doomscrolling, poetry whispered in the middle of the nigh...

Episode 75: To Couture a Mockingbird This week's prompts: Paper White, 1962, Glasses Neal takes 1962 straight to To Kill a Mockingbird, the landmark film adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel that somehow manages to be both gentle and devastating. He talks about Gregory Peck’s towering, quietly radical performance as Atticus Finch; why the movie still holds emotional power decades later; and how its mo...

Episode 74: Down Ghibli Road This week’s prompts: Bath, Paper White, 70 It’s New Year’s Eve at Curated by Chance, and Neal and Lauren settle into a quieter, cozier kind of chaos — the kind fueled by lingering colds, holiday brain fog, and the strange emotional clarity that tends to arrive between December 26 and January 1. What starts as a low-key check-in turns into a surprisingly tender conversa...

Episode 73: Johnny Galecki Is My Wingman This week’s prompts: Attic, Fur, 160 Neal and Lauren close out the holiday season with migraines, subzero temperatures, Christmas Eve recording energy, and an episode that somehow becomes both a love letter to seasonal chaos and a rom-com–worthy personal anecdote. Neal takes “Attic” straight to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) — the quintessenti...

Episode 72: Dancin' Slow This week’s prompts: Goldenrod, 919, Hat Lauren returns — coughs muted, spirits high — and Neal officially hands the mic back after last week’s Bond-fueled solo outing. What follows is a cozy, conversational episode that blends modern art theory, eccentric geniuses, and a little bit of podcast navel-gazing as the two reflect on growth, gratitude, and why structure can some...

Episode 71: The Gold Standard This week’s prompts: Goldenrod, 919, Hat Neal’s flying solo this week — migraine hangover, holiday chaos, Lauren home sick — but he shows up with a gleaming, gadget-packed deep dive into Goldfinger (1964), the Bond movie that became the blueprint for all Bonds to come. From Ian Fleming naming his villain out of pure pettiness to the film’s choice to replace a convolut...

Episode 70: Broad on a Couch This week’s prompts: 1717, Arena, Titian Red Neal and Lauren kick off the post–Thanksgiving stretch with an episode powered by heating pads, sunglasses, and sheer stubbornness. Neal shows up bundled in a hood, nursing shoulder pain and a barometric-pressure headache, while Lauren juggles the last week of classes, giant waitlists, and adjunct life. Neal takes “Arena” (a...

Episode 69: Podcast Therapy This week’s prompts: Turquoise, 110, Watermark Neal and Lauren fight through Thanksgiving-week chaos, closet recording, AirPods audio, and a brutal Zoom delay to bring you an episode that accidentally turns into group therapy — in the best way. Lauren takes “turquoise” straight to the American Southwest by way of Wisconsin with a rich, nuanced dive into the life and wor...

Episode 68: Maybe It’s Ghibelline This week’s prompts: Charcoal, Record, 1265, Story Neal and Lauren dive into political chaos, medieval poetry beef, and paranoid thrillers for an episode that swings from 13th-century Florence to 1980s Philadelphia. Lauren takes the year 1265 and spins it into a fiery tour through Dante Alighieri’s life, exile, enemies, and the giant, cosmic fanfiction we now call...

Episode 67: Sisyphean Endeavor This week’s prompts: Automatic, Peach, 88 Neal and Lauren brave snow, slush, and Sisyphean car scraping for a cozy winter episode filled with musicals, surrealism, and just the right amount of existential dread. Neal kicks things off by greasing the wheels of nostalgia with Grease (1978) — the leather-clad, pop-perfect, Chicago-born musical that became a worldwide ph...

Episode 66: One Night at Pita Pit This week’s prompts: Bear, Five, German Lauren takes us deep into the strange and hypnotic world of Grizzly Man (2005), Werner Herzog’s haunting documentary about Timothy Treadwell, the self-proclaimed bear protector who lived — and died — among Alaska’s brown bears. She explores Herzog’s icy narration, the infamous unseen audio tape, and the way the director blur...

Episode 65: Inherent Vice... but not the movie Prompts: 1220, Sage, Newspaper We’re back to our regularly scheduled programming! After a mini panic involving corrupted files and cloud sleuthing, Neal and Lauren are reunited in glorious audio form. Thank you, Riverside, and thank you, listeners, for your patience! In this episode, Neal grabs the morning edition and dives deep into His Girl Friday (...

Episode 64: It Go Up Prompts: Crimson, 1514, Scream Part two of our first-ever split episode experiment! Last week, Lauren took us deep into Raphael, the Renaissance bromance, and a corrupted file fiasco. This week, Neal takes the mic to resurrect horror—literally. Neal dives into Scream (1996), the Wes Craven–directed, Kevin Williamson–penned meta-slasher that saved an entire genre. From the true...

Episode 63: Warrior Pope Prompts: Crimson, 1514, Scream First of all curators, thank you for your patience! We recorded a great episode and ALL our files were corrupted! We lost basically 90 minutes of great content. We dug deep, and were able to get a backup of a backup of a backup from our recording program. It might be slightly lesser quality, but it's preserved! In this episode, Lauren tackles...

Episode 62: Dad Reviews from the Porch This week’s prompts: Justice, 79, Platinum It’s the Curated by Chance new year, and Neal and Lauren celebrate their “paper” anniversary with horses, hats, and ghost directors. Neal saddles up for Tombstone (1993), the cult Western classic that survived chaos, cast shakeups, and a ghost director—literally. He dives into Kurt Russell’s secret takeover, Val Kilm...

Episode 61: Dave Bautista in a Wig This week’s prompts: Dice, Aubergine, 150 Lauren returns from France with baguette-fueled stories of business class decadence, wine-fueled tears at the Musée d’Orsay, and a new appreciation for Patrick, the most patient flight attendant in the skies. Somewhere between Bridgemix, focaccia, and a Luther Vandross doc, she finds time to catch The Last Showgirl (2024)...

Episode 60: Où sont les toilettes? (AD-FREE) This week’s prompts: Worm, White, 22 Lauren over-caffeinates and contemplates French survival phrases, while Neal unpacks Cold War musicals and desert planets. Together, it’s part history lesson, part space opera geek-out. First, Neal dives into Chess (1986), the Cold War musical born from Tim Rice and the songwriters of ABBA. From concept album origins...

Episode 59: We All Should Be as Horny as Sabrina Carpenter This week’s prompts: Reckless, Silver, Hobby, 393 Lauren paints outside the lines with an American icon, while Neal curates four films that span from gritty New York streets to a Bronx stoop. Together, it’s an embarrassment of riches — with a side of erotic bike dancing. First, Lauren dives into the messy brilliance of Jackson Pollock, the...

Episode 58: Neal's Secret Pop Girlies This week’s prompts: 96, Sphinx, Olive Neal waves the flag for blockbusters, while Lauren summons a Sphinx of her own. Along the way, there’s a detour into pop girlies, concert confessions, and 23 cats. First, Neal revisits Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day (1996), the mega-hit that turned Will Smith into a global star and made us all salute Bill Pullman. Fro...

Episode 57: Two Out of Three Ain't Bad Prompts: Bulb, 37, Mahogany Lauren goes local and Neal goes cult classic. Together, they hit two out of three prompts—and that ain’t bad. First, Lauren spotlights Wendell Castle, the Kansas-born sculptor and furniture designer who became a pillar of 20th-century American craft in Rochester, NY. Known for his stack-laminated mahogany sculptures and trompe l’oe...

Episode 56: Living in a Breast Apartment This week’s prompts: 2002, Butter, Fedora Lauren bakes a shepherd’s pie. Neal's been making videos. Everything’s cooking—sometimes literally. This week's episode is a quick fire in the pan trip to two very different destinations. First, Neal dives into Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can (2002), the breezy con-man classic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and T...

Episode 55: Que Seurat, SeuratThis week’s prompts: Chair, Pews, 1886 Lauren debates pest control theology. Neal is mid-migraine and back pain. Business as usual. From pointillist pixels to loincloths and jungle epics, this episode stretches across art history and ‘80s Hollywood with wildly different (but equally nerdy) results. First, Lauren goes deep into Georges Seurat’s Models (1886), a paintin...

Episode 54: Jennifer Lopez and The Existential Crisis This week’s prompts: 1519, Lavender, Washer Neal forgets his mic. Lauren triggers an existential crisis. So, basically, everything’s normal. From rom-coms to laudanum-soaked painters, this episode spans centuries and sensibilities as our hosts dig into their latest trio of prompts with very different (but equally fascinating) results. First, Ne...

EPISODE 53: Ninja Leslie Nielsen Summer’s in full swing, the bats are (mostly) gone, and Neal’s first attempt at mowing the lawn was almost a Disney nature documentary—minus the narrator and with a lot more screaming. Lauren’s on bat patrol until “The Batman” (the wildlife kind) cometh, and Patreon member Guy Carter weighs in with a skeleton-running-away-worthy comment. From spiders to baby rabbit...

Episode 52: Bat Babies in My Ear (AD-FREE) This week’s prompts: World War II, Forest Green, 77 If last week was chaos, this week... still chaos. Lauren is podcasting under a blanket like it’s her last line of defense. Welcome to another wildly unpredictable episode of Curated by Chance—complete with dramatic retellings, wartime art dives, and a little Spielberg in between. First up, Neal takes us...